The updated Moto X just went on sale earlier this week with delivery dates toward the end of the month. So far only the GSM devices for AT&T and T-Mobile have popped up, but Verizon has confirmed it too will have the phone soon. If you have been waiting on the seemingly inevitable Sprint announcement, you are about to get some bad news—Sprint won't carry the 2014 Moto X. Ouch.

@griffithgg The new Moto X won’t be available on the Sprint network. Thanks for checking in.

The news comes by way of a Twitter exchange between a concerned customer and the official Motorola account. When asked about the Sprint version of the device, Motorola says there won't be one. T-Mobile isn't technically carrying the phone either, but the unlocked Pure Edition works just fine on its GSM/LTE network. Sprint's CDMA/LTE setup requires the carrier to be involved. Thus, no new Moto X on the Now Network. That means Republic Wireless users will probably not see the new Moto X either.

The ensuing Twitter discussion attracted the attention of Sprint's customer care account, which claims Sprint is, "at the behest of the manufacturer with regards to this." So did Motorola decide not to support Sprint? That would be an odd choice. Verizon also got in on the Tweet storm to rub salt in the wound. "Why not get the phone you want as well as the nation's most reliable network? You can get both with us," it Tweeted. Sick burn, Verizon.

Comments

Sprint isn't the only company that MVNOs piggy back off of. Plenty of them use Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.

Guest

No *Sprint* MVNOs. It works fine on the TMobile and AT&T MVNOs. And probably Verizon, though I am not sure on that.

gk1984

In the Reddit comments, it's mention multiple times that the new Moto X supports Sprint's tri-band LTE. So I wonder if they couldn't agree on other terms.

rodan32

I think Sprint's LTE network is still a little too thin to go that way. All that effort and expense with Wimax left them without a lot of resources to get the LTE rolled out right, I guess.

gk1984

No doubt, but my point wasn't to just use it as an LTE device. Just that it's unusual to include these bands when, to my knowledge, Sprint is the only one that uses them - not sure about the rest of the world though. So it just appears that there might have initially been plans to launch on Sprint but it fell through.

T-Mobile doesn't provide coverage in the places I need it to. AT&T might, but I'm not keen on tripling my monthly bill when what I have suits my needs just fine. Ting's customer service is also something I don't want to give up. I haven't walked away from a customer service issue with them yet with a bad taste in my mouth - something that's rare for *any* service provider, not just phones.

But yeah, I'd definitely prefer being able to just pop out the SIM card.

Verizon here. Yeah, they're evil, but they are the one and only carrier that gets a signal out in the boonies where I live. Pretty good, too - I get 5 bars of LTE even though I'm 30 miles from the nearest city.

Oh, and I have unlimited data and unlimited tethering. Makes it hard to leave.

Cricket is a descent deal. They just up'ed their amount of data and they piggy back of At&t.

ProductFRED

Port your number to Google Voice, hop on T-Mobile's $30 plan. Enjoy unlimited minutes (using GV, 100 without), unlimited texting, and 5GB LTE (unlimited throttled afterwards). Best of all, you can use the Moto X to make and receive calls anywhere there's a Wifi connection at the very least.

didibus

I'll look into this, thanks

Alfuh

Is it possible to do this plan and use data for calls over hangouts / google voice? Or do you need to have credit in the account to call actual phone numbers?

ProductFRED

It's free to call and text the US and Canada. The only thing that's not really working yet is MMS. But if you can deal with that, it's a great deal. Call credits are only needed/used when calling or texting to a number outside the US or Canada.

I already have my number on Google Voice, and I'm well aware of T-Mobile's $30 plan (I briefly used it for a few weeks just to try it out), but as I've said in other comments, T-Mobile's coverage is too weak and spotty where I live and in the areas I travel through. One large benefit of Ting is that it roams to Verizon, which is the only carrier that has solid signal wherever you go out here.

anotherDude

I understand that. I'm about to try a T-mo line, and if that doesn't work out I'm on my way to Cricket.

Idle Time

I have GV. But how does one make unlimited calls through it on a cell phone? I understand one can talk through GV with no limit on a computer...

Straight Talk's unlocked SIM cards are not good enough? Honestly $45/mo is not a lot compared to contract carriers anyways with a similar plan :P

pr0grammer1

"Why not get the phone you want as well as the nation's most reliable network? You can get both with us" -Verizon

I'd have considered it, except Verizon's the only carrier to have it without the option of an unlockable bootloader. Oops.

dude

By most reliable, they mean most restrictive.

another Dude

Verison, the apple of networks.

Dwayne Rooney Fernandes

Off Topic : Can anyone confirm if there definitely will be a new nexus phone releasing. Not interested in specific details. Just need to know whether we will be getting a new Nexus

Daniel

Apparently, AnTuTu benchmarks have been run on a "shamu." Possibly Nexus 6/X/5 (2014). Could be based on Moto X.

Also, someone accidentally leaked a Nexus 9 "Volantis" made by HTC.

Rumors Rumors Rumors

J_Grouchy

"Why not get the phone you want as well as the nation's most reliable network? You can get both with us,"...as well as doubling your bill! Yay us! - Verizon

Allen D

Yeah definitely been reading around even Anantech did the review and showed off all the bands so the phone should work unlocked and on the pure version. I guess until someone picks one up we won't know if it will work or not. Could someone from AP check that out? Some of us are in no position to move carriers nor would I want to go back to T-Mobile just hohum out here in MD. But I would like to recommend it as an alternative to the HTC or LG.

RyanWhitwam

I think the CDMA component would be a sticking point on Sprint's network even if it has the bands. Should still need to be properly provisioned.

theSHIFTingWIG113

If you go to anandtech and read the moto x review under the "cellular architecture" section they mention that the new moto x lacks a chip that enables carrier agregation which I think means you cannot recive more than one LTE band.

I also remeber Sprint saying that all their new devices must support tri-band LTE so maybe this is why its not on Sprint.

ProductFRED

What's interesting is that on Anandtech's review of the new Moto X, the Sprint model was listed as having all of T-Mobile's frequencies, including AWS HSPA+. This indicates that they were expecting to buy out and merge with T-Mobile. Additionally, it's the only Moto X model listed to have LTE Band 12. Could it be that with the falling out of the merger, Sprint decided not to sell the phone because it would cost more than it was willing to pay (additional components)?

RyanWhitwam

Interesting idea. Sprint may have also not wanted to sell a device that would work so well on T-Mobile when Tmo itself wasn't selling the device. Unsure what the CDMA-GSM locking situation would be.

ProductFRED

I know I'm deviating a little off-topic here, but it'd be great if the government could force carriers to make all of their phones inter-compatible. That's how it works in Europe. Although to be fair, in Europe, GSM is the mandated mobile standard; anything else, such as CDMA, is illegal.

dude

CDMA illegal, now that's an idea.

ProductFRED

CDMA is going to be going away very soon. Verizon is already rolling out VoLTE on their phones. I have it on my T-Mobile Note 3; everything is pure data. Eventually Verizon is gonna to stop shipping phones with CDMA modems and just do everything over VoLTE. Same with Sprint. Then all carriers will be able to roam on each others' networks. Verizon's XLTE is the same frequency as T-Mobile's LTE, for example. So they can roam on each others' once they have an agreement.

But back to what I was saying, in Europe, not only is every phone GSM, but every network uses the same set of frequencies: 900/2100 MHz HSPA+ and 800/1800/2600 MHz LTE. If you buy a phone on network X, it will work on networks Y and Z guaranteed and vice versa.

digiblur

Sprint has already stated that CDMA isn't going anywhere soon. They just rolled out all the 800mhz 1X CDMA as well. Their network has a very long way to go before CDMA can be a thing of the past. At least 4-5 years at the earliest.

dude

Good insight.

MUTINOUS

maybe Moto X will be on T-Mobile and Sprint buys them out, Like you are saying @ProductFRED:disqus

ProductFRED

Hopefully they don't buy them out. Sprint is terrible at maintaining their network, and they've accumulated so many users that they would effectively choke T-Mobile's network. They're looking for an easy way out. Sprint's problem should not become T-Mobile's problem.

Lucas Laws

Pretty sure that merger fell through.

ProductFRED

It did.

Kolyan24k

Fck em

Berinth

It's too bad there is zero T-mobile service where I live.

qu4ttro

Well this pisses me off...

M Brandon Lee

I'm so confused now....a moto chat rep said the Pure Edition would work with Sprint...

Paul Simon: As what i can check here Brandon, We don't have an update yet about the release of the MOTO X.
Paul Simon: You can contact your carrier about the release date of the phone.
Brandon: Gotcha. Man, I want the new Moto X so badly, but I cannot leave my carrier. I would be so bummed out if I cannot get it with Sprint. They told me they didn't have any news either way and to ask you guys =/
Paul Simon: We don't have an update about it for now.
Brandon: Well, if there is any way to give input on what customers want, please let someone know that Sprint customers REALLY want the moto x
Paul Simon: Sure. If you want you can buy customized MOTO X to our website just make sure to buy the unlocked ones so that you can use it with sprint.
Brandon: Does the pure edition work with Sprint?
Paul Simon: Yes.
Brandon: If that is the case, then that isn't a problem at all, but I thought it didn't work
Brandon: since there is CDMA and everything
Paul Simon: Rest assured it will work just make sure you purchase the unlocked wones.
Brandon: wow, I had no idea! If I buy it and it doesn't work, what is the return policy? Would i have to pay to ship it back?
Paul Simon: For the return policy, You will have 14 days to return the phone back to us from the date that you receive the phone.
Brandon: And I would pay for shipping?

M Brandon Lee

And he checked...he said he was mistaken. Bah....

Renan Lazarotto

Thanks god on Brazil there isn't this crap of each carrier using a different technology! But I'm not even a bit inclined to get one of those.

blindexecutioner

Kind of a bummer but the new X is just a mediocre large screen phone anyway this year. They ruined it be increasing the size.

John Bailey

I spoke to a Motorola product rep the other day at a vendor show and he told me that while Sprint is not getting the Moto X, they will be getting their own "exclusive" Motorola device. I sure hope it's not another Photon....

M Brandon Lee

Any hints at a release date?

John Bailey

He just said this fall sometime, he couldn't really elaborate further other than to say Sprint will get their own exclusive device later this fall

nonobucks

Why wouldn't they just do both, even Verizon is doing it with their droid line...

ASW

One of my family members who works at Motorola asked about this and was told that Sprint was not interested in the new Moto X. Obviously, even when you work at a company information can be incorrect (perhaps an executive shifted blame to Sprint when it was actually Motorola), but this at least gives us a direction to push on if we really wanted to change this.

So I propose that we start a campaign towards Sprint to change their mind. Who wants to do this?

NXUS

"Why not get the phone you want as well as the nation's most reliable network?"

That sounds great, Verizon. I would like a Nexus, please.

ASW

Punit Soni implies that it was Sprint that decided to not carry the new Moto X